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Olympiaki Agones: the Ancient Olympics

As the Tokyo Olympic Games kick off amid all the controversy regarding the decision to hold the games during a surge in covid-19 cases, it's time to celebrate the essence and history of the Olympic Games.

The modern Olympics, held every four years are of course modeled after the ancient Olympic Games, known as "Olympiaki agones" as a series of athletic competitions among city-states of ancient Greece. As with all things in ancient Greece, the games had mythological origin and were held in honor of Zeus. His son, Heracles (Roman Hercules) is credited as the founder of the games.

The first Olympics was held in 776 BCE (according to Aristotle) and soon became the most popular sporting event for centuries in ancient Greece. It was held every four years like the modern version of the games but it was held in the same location, Olympia, each time. Winners were honored with an olive branch It continued without interruption for almost 12 centuries (until 393 AD when the stadium was thought to have been destroyed by fire.

Prize amphora featuring three Olympic runners.

The Olympics was resurrected in 1896 in Greece, and has continued until the modern-day games.

Here are some fun facts about ancient Olympics that I unearthed:

  • The first Olympic games had only one event- short distance (192 meters) running- called Stadion (from which the word stadium was derived)
  • The word Olympiad became a commonly used unit of time to describe a period of four years.
  • Emperor Alexander I of Macedonia competed and even won the station race. He was not allowed to compete at first because Macedonia was not in Greece but he traced his origins to Greece in order to qualify.
  • The most controversial Olympics was the 67 AD one under Emperor Nero. He entered the chariot race, fell off and was severely wounded, and yet was declared the winner because he had bribed the judges. He also added contests in singing and other artistic contests which he also won after an appalling performance. (After his death, the judges were forced to return the bribes and the games were declared void).
  • When the Persians invaded Greece in 480 BCE, Greece had a hard time putting together an army because all the men were more interested in competing in the Olympics. Greece had to delay forming the army.
  • Women were not allowed to compete but could be declared winners by being the owner of the winning chariot, which was taken advantage of by the daughter of a Spartan king.
and the weirdest fact of all,
  • All contestants were completely naked -- all except wrestlers who were covered in oil! 😁 The tradition of running naked was started after one runner lost his shorts during the race. Talk of an impactful wardrobe malfunction!

List of Olympic champions from 480-448 BC (75th-83rd Olympics)

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Olympic_Games 
https://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml
https://olympics.com/ioc/ancient-olympic-games
https://www.history.com/topics/sports/olympic-games
https://brewminate.com/a-guide-to-the-ancient-olympics/

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